The 2011 British Open

Posted: 18.09.11 in Anthony Urmston-Toft Blog category

Darts Performance Centre player AJ reflects on a good day at the office on Saturday at the British Open. A last 32 finish and a victory against the current World Champion.

Hello once again, my aj-aholics

Well as some of you may be aware I had a great run in this tournament, but we’ll start with getting there.

At 5:00am I set off to pick up good friend Stephen Bunting and his girlfriend at Birch Services A two and a half hour drive later and we were at the venue.

The main hall in Bridlington

I put my new Darts Performance Centre shirt on and got ready to do some “clobbering”. My first match was THE first match in my group. It was against Bob Foster. I won the game 3-0, Bob was out of sorts and didn’t play his best, but a nice fella.

I then had a three hour wait before my next game. I had a walk around Bridlington, had a look at the various shops and sights,  then headed back back to the Spa for a cup of tea and a practice. I then played my next game against Graham Lalor. He won the first leg but my scoring developed and my finishing was good and proved too much for Graham.

I had another hour wait before my next game with Simon Roberts, so I had a little practice whilst having another cup of tea. I played very well and so did Simon but my finishing was what clinched it. 3-0 was a flattering score-line mind.

My next game was against Martin Adams, “Wolfie”! I was nervous but I felt confident. I practised with Clive Barden, did some power scoring drills and then I did some doubles practice. Now I’ll let you in on a little secret, since the Cheshire open I had developed a…well I wouldn’t say fear but for the past few week I had struggled on hitting double 20. So I just practised on tops for a bit.

I won the bull against Martin so I threw first. A nice 140 to start, I didn’t watch Martin throw I just focused on my darts and flights and to cut a long story short I won 3-0. I think Martin was stunned; the crowd definitely was!  I hit the winning double, shook Martin’s hand and he said I had played well!  It was very surreal with people patting me on the back and saying well done. It was only when I saw Clive Barden, and told him, that I had every emotion going through me and my legs had turned  jelly. I was then informed that I had 10 minutes before my next game. I went outside, rang my wife Sarah and told her what I’d done. Her advice was to calm down, I just took in the sea air and tried to calm down and relax.

My next match was against recent Winmau Masters challenger Jim Widmayer, he is an excellent player. I knew that I had to play at the same level as I did against Martin to progress any further.For two legs Jim was awesome,  I was hitting the trebles but there were a few slack darts too. In the third leg my first dart was in single 1! I took a step back, recomposed myself and then hit T20 T20. I had rediscovered my spot.

I brought it back to 2-2 but Jim had the darts, I wasn’t worried, I felt I could do enough to clinch the deciding leg.  My power scoring came back and I hit double tops with my first dart (practice makes perfect). Jim said “Good Shooting” and I was in the last 32.

I had a huge wait for my next game and I think my momentum had gone by the time I played Glen Durrant. He was awesome, I was throwing well but he just had the edge, the extra treble I was lacking he didn’t miss. His finishing was good too. I got beaten 3-0. I was disheartened. I knew I can throw better than I did in that game but fair play to Glen, he was on fire. Glen went all the way to the semi finals before losing to Willy van der Wiel.

On reflection I had a great day with two huge scalps and more points to my tally. This year has been both fun and frustrating, but more on that later this week.

I hope you have enjoyed my trials and tribulations over the year, I will be writing my annual review this week so stay tuned for that.

In the mean time make sure you take a look at our products. The new polo shirts are really nice. A good feel to them and they are good at locking in moisture as I discovered during my long day at “the office” on Saturday. They look smart too.

And of course why don’t you buy the darts capable of beating the worlds best. They are a bargain price and top quality manufacturing. Every set sold gives me a contibution to the expenses of playing on the BDO circuit so please take a look at the video and check out what other people think of them.

 Take care,

 AJ Urmston-Toft